Resurrected

Ethan's POV

They say marriage makes you more mature. I agree. Charlie and Silena finally looked like the adults they were. Everyone kind of treated them like older kids, seeing as they were at a summer camp. But now, watching them as they walked through the camp holding hands, the younger girls smiled at Silena, and the boys looked at Charlie like he was Captain America.

And they deserved nothing less.

The four months since our little encounter with the Lord of Time had been a breeze…for most people. It had been an awkward, painful one for me. You see, since Tommy and I had kissed on the night of the battle, we had kind of been skirting around each other, neither one of us wanting to make a move. We liked each other, we just didn’t want to admit it yet.

Every time we would see each other, it hurt. Like we burned each other as much as we comforted each other. I was worried that Tommy was turning into Alex. Someone who I thought of when things were turning bad, but not someone I could really love.

Take the wedding, for example. October 20th was a beautiful day on Long Island. The sea breeze kept the camp reasonably cool, but it was a warm October. A group of Aphrodite girls, Annabeth, Clarisse, Alex and some other girls acted as the bridesmaids, and Leo led the groomsmen along with Percy, Tommy, Jake Mason and most of the Hephaestus guys and I.

We all looked so good, it made my heart soar until it felt sore, but when Tommy walked out, it was as if he didn’t want to be around me. Not because he didn’t like me, but because it was almost as if he would be too obligated to talk to me. For us to finally recap what happened that night.

I felt happy for Charlie and Silena, but I couldn’t help being distracted throughout the entire day. This has been how the past four months have been. Painfully blissful.

So one day, I decided to tip my emotional standpoint from the painful end towards the blissful end. I had foraged around the Kitchen and had made myself a picnic basket with enough food for two, and I had put it right where Tommy had taken me before, when I was sick. Then, I walked back towards the Cabins.

I spotted Tommy walking outside the Nike cabin, alone as usual. He looked so incomplete. Like he had forgotten to put on pants or something, but instead of pants, it was like he forgot to put on part of his soul. He looked half-dead, to be honest, with his face drooping into a groggy frown and his hair messed up. But he still looked cute to me.

I walked up to him with a sense of feral determination, like a cheetah hunting its prey. Tommy would not escape me today. No, today, Tommy Doyle would own up to himself, whether he liked it or not.

“Tommy!” I called, and he turned to see me. His frown somehow increased, and he started to walk away towards the Pavilion.

“Nope,” I half-shouted, half-muttered to myself, “Not today. Tommy, come here.”

This time, when I called him, there was no sense of urgency. I was pleading with him. He seemed to hear that in my words, and stopped, sighing, but also holding his breath.

“What do you want, Ethan?” He asked. Was that irritation in his voice? Or was he covering his nervousness up with that?

“What do I want?” I asked myself rhetorically, “Well, I want you to stop avoiding me. I want you to acknowledge what happened that night. I want you to realize what I had to clear out of my life to make room for you. Tommy, do you even realize how empty I feel without you?”

“Ethan—” He started to explain, but I silenced him with a kiss. I cupped my hand lightly on his cheek and pulled him in, not caring who was watching. Like an instinct, he put one of his hands on mine and ran his other hand through my hair. That’s when I pulled away.

“I want you to acknowledge how good that made you feel,” I told him. And then I walked away, preying to Aphrodite and my mom that this plan would work.

The love goddess must have like my plan, because Tommy called after me,

“Wait, Ethan, wait up!”

He jogged quickly up to me, and I looked at him, saying,

“Yeah, what do you want?” I tried to sound just like he had.

“Look,” He said, “I’m sorry. I just felt so awkward about what happened that night. We were all pent up on adrenaline, and I kind of felt weird when you said that you liked me.”

I paled with fear, realizing that going straight for the kiss might not have been a good idea. But then he kept going, saying,

“But then when you kissed me…I kind of liked it. I mean, I don’t know. I still don’t really know how I feel, I just know that I liked it.”

He smiled at me, and a huge sigh of relief coursed through my body. I breathed in, smiled back, and said,

“Well then, now that that’s over, follow me.”

I then walked away from him again, and this time he made a comment, laughing,

“Hey, I thought you were the one who wanted to sort out our relationship, but you keep running away from me!”

“Ugh,” I groaned, looking back at him, “just follow me, Mr. Adidas.”

“Adidas!?” He half-asked, half-accused, half-laughed, “Oh my gods, Ethan, I’m going to kill you!”

So, I ran, and he followed. Finally, we got to where I had set up our picnic, and stopped, saying with a smile,

“Very funny, Ethan, now where are we actually going?”

“Well,” I responded, “since I thought you were really cute the last time we were here, I thought we’d have a repeat.”

We were both smiling uncontrollably by now, but Tommy made a show of straightening his face and said,

“I am not cute, Ethan Nakamura. I,” he said, rushing forward and cupping his hand to my face and making me blush, “am handsome.”

We both starting laughing uncontrollably, and ended up falling down on the blanket. When we both opened our eyes, our faces were only inches apart, lying on the blanket. We were both holding our breath Then, he leaned forward and kissed me. It was so light at first I didn’t feel it, but as I realized what was happening I leaned into him. It was the most beautiful feeling I had ever felt in my entire life.

But I still hadn’t achieved my purpose. I released from the heavenly kiss, like I was confused, and said,

“Wait, stop, no. Tommy, can we just get this over with? Look, what are you doing tomorrow?”

He understood the underlying purpose of the question, but played along like he was actually confused, not understanding that I was asking him out.

“Well, I have sword-training with Percy in the morning, archery with Chiron after lunch and then the weekly canoe races at 5:00, why?”

“Oh shut up, Doyle,” I responded, and he laughed. But I continued, “Honestly, though, will you go out with me?”

“Of course I will, dork,” He said, like it made him exteremely happy, like he wasn’t nervous, “Now, can we get back to the kissing part? I liked that better.”

So we did. That was most definitely the best day of my life.

Notes

OK, at this point, this is basically fluff. UGH I loved writing this one. Why? Because plot development in a fluff chapter, that's why. Ethan asks Tommy out. Nothing more needs to be said.

Enjoy,
Grafon